Intentional parenting is a choice, but for many, it feels like a guessing game. While parenting advice is everywhere, the numbers in Singapore show a rise in youth mental health crises. Eric Lim, co-founder of Parendigm, believes the gap lies in strategy, not love. To solve this, Lim has launched the Parendigm Web App, a digital companion designed to turn parenting from a reflexive struggle into a deliberate, intentional practice.
Eric Lim, co-founder of Parendigm, believes the problem isn’t a lack of love or even a lack of methods. It’s a lack of strategy. To bridge this gap, he has launched the Parendigm Web App, a digital companion designed to move parenting from a reflexive struggle to an intentional practice.
A Parenting Strategy in Your Pocket
Currently in its pilot phase, the Parendigm app (available at app.parendigm.com) is built for real-life moments rather than quiet reading. It functions as a “parenting corner” for those who want to practise intentional parenting but are too stretched to afford private coaching or too overwhelmed to navigate dense textbooks.
When a difficult situation arises, parents can open the app and receive practical guidance, including five-day action plans, ready-to-use dialogue for hard conversations, and daily prompts for reflection and growth.
“At the heart of Parendigm is a simple belief,” Eric says. “When parents grow, families thrive.”
The Rationale: Why a “Movement” is Necessary
The launch of the app is the latest evolution of a movement Lim has been building across Singapore’s boardrooms and airwaves. Over the last two years, he has worked with more than 500 families, making the case before CNA cameras, on Radio 89.3, and in the pages of The Straits Times.
He has been invited into organizations like Singapore General Hospital, OCBC, Singlife, and NCS, whose leadership teams have begun to notice that employees who are struggling at home do not leave that struggle at the office door. For Lim, the software is merely the tool; the “why” lies in a fundamental, often uncomfortable question:
“Have you ever actually decided to be a parent?”
Ms. Low Yen Ling, Singapore Minister of State in 2023.
The Gap Between Love and Intention
Eric argues that most people “become” parents by circumstance but rarely “decide” to be ones by design. “Love is a feeling,” he explains. “Intention is a choice you make before anything happens, before anything goes wrong. Most parents skip that step completely.”
This diagnostic approach stems from his own childhood. By age five, he was cooking meals and bathing his younger brother while his parents worked every day of the year. There was love and sacrifice, but a total absence of intentionality. “I often wonder,” he says, “if they had understood parenting more—perhaps our family would be much closer today.”
Breaking the “Method” Trap
Eric’s critique of the current parenting landscape is precise: parents often hunt for “methods” to fix their children’s behavior without examining their own internal roadmap. He recalls a family whose teenage son was gaming 20 hours a day. The parents wanted a technique to “fix” the boy. Instead, Lim worked with the parents to change their reflexive responses.
The result? Gaming hours dropped to five, a police report for “beyond-parental-control” behavior was never filed, and the son eventually moved to Tokyo to work in venture capital. The case was resolved not because the child was “fixed,” but because the parents chose to unlock themselves first.
The Culture of Silence in Asian Families
This transformation is compounded, Eric adds, by the specific silence of Asian family culture. To seek parenting help is often viewed as admitting failure; reputation is guarded closely, and struggle is absorbed privately. By the time families reach out, the damage is often already structural.
This is where the Parendigm platform becomes essential—it offers a private, accessible way to start the work of intentional parenting before a crisis forces the hand.
A Shared Mission
This work is a family endeavor. Lim’s wife, Grace, is his co-founder, and their partnership spans three roles: spouses, parents to two children, and business partners. They apply the same intentionality to their own lives—whether cycling with their son or taking 45-kilometer late-night drives across Singapore just to maintain a “chosen presence.”
Together, they are preparing to scale this support through the app and a forthcoming book, Parenting Unlocked. “It has to be a movement,” Lim says. “It has to go out there and change many, many people.”
Eric Lim is the co-founder of Parendigm, a Singapore-based movement built on the conviction that this single gap — between loving your children and deliberately parenting them — is responsible for more family suffering than any other factor.
This article was produced by Consulus, a strategic partner and shareholder of Parendigm.
About the Partners
Parendigm is a movement that bridges and shapes the parenting knowledge gap in Southeast Asia. In the years to come, the organization seeks to reach a million parents through workshops, retreats, products, and technological initiatives to help parents in Singapore and Asia rediscover their own key to parenting.
Consulus: Founded in Singapore in 2004, Consulus is a global creative change firm working with persons, organisations, and cities in their transfiguration toward an Economy of Communion. With a presence in 23 countries, Consulus believes that purpose and unity are essential to innovation and inclusive growth. Consulus shapes economic impact through indexes, such as the Economy of Communion, Design and Impact, and Multifaith Economy. Consulus is a shareholder of Parendigm.
About the Author
Dorothy Borromeo is the Senior Creative Change Content Strategist at Consulus, bringing her experience in brand and content marketing across multiple global markets. She began her career in media monitoring and later pivoted into content creation for a wide range of B2B and B2C industries, including healthcare, logistics, and retail. She is passionate about how information reaches people and is committed to making complex topics accessible and meaningful.
Her work is guided by intentionality—ensuring every project serves a purpose and contributes to something that matters. With a strong interest in development communication, she is particularly drawn to how information empowers communities at the grassroots level.
Beyond her professional roles, she continues to broaden her perspective through backpacking and learning from diverse communities. She also contributes to Noise Hanoi, where she writes about the city’s independent music scene and its emerging creative culture.
